


I Feel the Pain in Your Heart

by guilttrippingg



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Anchor Stiles Stilinski, Angst, Comfort, Companions, Confessions, Coping, Depression, Derek Feels Guilty, Derek Loves Stiles, Derek Needs a Hug, Derek is a Softie, Emotional Hurt, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Falling In Love, Feelings, Gen or Pre-Slash, Grief/Mourning, Insomnia, Love, M/M, Mentioned Kate Argent, No Sex, POV Derek Hale, PTSD Derek, Partnership, Protective Derek, Psychological Trauma, Sad, Stiles Loves Derek, Stiles is Derek's Anchor, Understanding, kate argent memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-22
Updated: 2015-07-22
Packaged: 2018-04-10 17:03:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4400120
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/guilttrippingg/pseuds/guilttrippingg
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles and Derek sit on a rooftop and Derek thinks about the enigma that is Stiles Stilinski and the ways in which they are both trying to cope with loss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Feel the Pain in Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

> "They always say that the people that seem the happiest are usually the saddest".

Staring down from his rooftop, Derek sighed It wasn't a sad sigh, not even an exhausted one. It was a sigh of content.

Not many things in Dereks' life seemed to work out or go to plan but there was one thing (or, one person) who made it just that bit easier to cope. That person was Stiles Stilinski, currently sat quietly next to him, fingers interlocked with his own.

Derek didn't really know how it started, it was a gradual thing-he thinks about how at the start of this supernatural mess, he had looked at stiles and just saw a hyperactive kid, then an ally, then a friend and now a companion. Partner? He didn't know and that was fine with him; he was content.

Over time he'd found that Stiles was really just like him, and sat on the rooftop he knew that he was content for maybe the first time in years. Paige, the fire, Laura, Erica, Boyd and every other person he had lost caused a never ending grief inside of him, but Stiles' presence was soothing and made the grief into something manageable, because out of all of the other people in his life, he knew that Stiles knew grief. He understood how it changed you; how it can ruin you. How it _destroys_ you from the inside.

Derek and Stiles were the same because underneath the loud, hyperactive exterior was a kid so full of love, so scared of losing everything and coping in the only way he knew how, by trying to make everyone else happy to compensate for his own misery.

They always say that the people that seem the happiest are usually the saddest.

Derek may have dealt with his grief my isolating himself, by turning his back on everyone but he also understood what Stiles had been doing. Loss connects people in a way nothing else in the world can. It eats him up inside. He knows Stiles is the same, because alone Stiles is quiet. He sits eerily still. He becomes who he really is-the lonely, depressed teen who grew up way too fast. Derek hates that he can relate. Hates that Stiles is suffering. Time spent together, was time spent slowly healing each other.

They saw themselves in each other. Each saw the person that their depressions hid.

Sitting together on the rooftop had become somewhat of a routine for them, on sleepless nights it was a retreat into their own little world. A world without loss. Sometimes Derek would come and it would just be him, other times Stiles would be there. Sometimes they would talk for hours about trivial things, like Stiles not understanding how Scott _still_ hasn't seen star wars. Sometimes they would talk about things they could tell no one else, like how used and dirty Derek really felt after Kate. The all too consuming guilt. How he scrubbed himself raw every day for months after the fire but _still_ felt unclean. In return, Stiles would hum and nod, not giving any bullshit responses like most people did, like "it will get better" or "everything will work itself out" because they both knew it was all a lie. Other times, the roof would be almost silent. Derek would lose himself to the sound of Stiles' jittery heartbeat. It was like home to him.

The realisation probably should have been a shock to him, would have been if it was a year ago, but now it was comforting because Stiles _was_ home to Derek. His anchor. Derek was content with that. It was just a fact. He lightly squeezed Stiles' hand and pulled him closer. Here in their own little world, nothing else could touch them. He wouldn't let anything hurt stiles, _couldn't_. Time passed and Derek thought about how they were both going to be okay, they were slowly building themselves up again from rock bottom. And that was fine.

Staring down from his rooftop, Derek sighed.

**Author's Note:**

> Stiles and Derek using each other to cope with their severe emotional issues=what i live for 
> 
> this kinda just came from nowhere


End file.
